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Between the sheets

The cover for “Fantasy Superpack #1” is out and I’m beyond giddy at my story being sandwiched between Frederik Pohl and Philip K Dick.

Another writer friend, Brenda Clough, noted gleefully that she was “…between Robert E Howard and James Blish. OMG!!!”

“Hhmmm,” someone added, “women all excited to be between the sheets with a couple of guys...”

“DEAD ones!“, Brenda retorted.

Most of the stories are from the Golden Age of SFF, by names that are instantly recognizable, held in respect and in awe, revered, beloved of generations. The collection includes a scattering of us “new folk”, and we can’t believe we’re at the same party. We are standing next to writers who were giants in our chosen field, astonished that our stories are rubbing shoulders with theirs, will be read by the same eyeballs which land on theirs.

Of course they’re all GUYS, these writers from the Golden Age, few ladies got to step center stage back then.

I’ve been in anthologies before. This one is just… AMAZINGLY different. I feel as though I’ve just had a stamp put on my arm, and was admitted to, and welcomed at, a very very special party.

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“You smell angry,” Aunt Zoe said as she walked through the door, sniffing in Thea’s direction like a hound dog scenting prey.~ Gift of the Unmage, Worldweavers #1

The first hint of trouble came, as trouble always does, unlooked for, stealthily, catching everyone by surprise. It was the day when LaTasha Jackson suddenly turned into an anatomy teacher’s aid. ~ Spellspam, Worldweavers #2

Those were the first lines of my first two Worldweavers young adult books. (The fourth in the series is coming soon.) They come to mind because author Jon Walter offered his top 10 children and YA opening lines in an article for The Guardian.

While my Worldweavers lines didn’t make his list, I’m rather pleased with them myself, the Spellspam line in particular. After all. it’s not everyday that a girl’s skin turns transparent because she innocently opened a malicious piece of spam that carried a magic spell.

The first of Walter’s selections:Sometimes the opening line of a book can tell you whether you are going to love it straight away. Photograph: Alamy

“The first thing you find out when yer dog learns to talk is that dogs don’t got nothing much to say.“

The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness.

A great book that’s all about the voice and he nails it in the first line. Todd Hewitt lives in Prentisstown and it’s not only his dog that speaks. Everyone can hear each other’s thoughts and their heads are always full of noise – until Todd meets a girl who shouldn’t exist and the silence that surrounds her.

Embeddable implants are already here, Keiron Monks of CNN says.Subdermal RFID chips have been on the market for a while. Now, they can hold a lot more data than ever before, and could replace your smartphone and tablet passwords.

Smartphone mapping features are great for getting directions, until you lose signal. But you could avoid getting lost in the woods with a guiding system embedded in your body.

Electronic engineer and biohacker Brian McEvoy has designed the first internal compass, and will be the first test subject. The ‘Southpaw’ — inspired by the North Paw bracelet – works by sealing a miniature compass inside a silicon coat, within a rounded Titanium shell, to be implanted under the skin. An ultra-thin whisker juts out, which is activated when the user faces north, to lightly brush an alert on the underside of the skin.

OK. That’s a bit of anthromorphising, But these photos, selected by Chelsea DeBaise at Dose, are irresistible.See the rest

~~~~~A book is better

Reading a print book is better for comprehension than reading on a computer, according to a new report out of Norway.

Why? The researchers concluded that reading print texts helps the brain form mental maps. The brain has an easier task when you can touch as well as see. A mental map is particularly important if the text is long. Lengthy texts call for quicker navigation. You need to be able to leaf back and forth through different parts of the text to see, review and comprehend relationships and contexts.

“There’s a reason you separate military and the police. One fightsthe enemies of the state, the other serves and protects the people.When the military becomes both, then the enemies of the state tend tobecome the people.” ~ Bill Adama, Battlestar Galactica